As of November, 29th 2009, 4 p.m. the 1. International L-Numbers Days are history.

Now, we wish to review our experiences.

It all began with an idea of Ingo Seidel and me (Andreas Tanke) during a train ride. This idea became reality over time, even though it started quite slowly. During the inaugural meeting of the IG BSSW we presented our plans and got great feedback. Fortunately with Matthias Kählig (Panta Rhei GmbH) we met our main sponsor and co-organizer already in February 2009. Without him, it would have been hardly possible to start such an adventure with uncertain outcome like this.

Backed up like that, we could start our planning and set up an ambitious collection of talks. In Our initial hopes we expected some 50-60 participants. And for a long time it appeared that these numbers would probably not be surpassed.

During the following months, we managed to arrange for very successful cooperation with the most important German aquarium magazines (DATZ, Aquaristik-Fachmagazin and Amazonas) as well as a large internet based community. Exemplary we would like to mention Planetcatfish.com, where we were allowed to place our ad banners, but also the huge number of large and small forums where we could post our information texts. A number of internet users were also very helpful through placing our ad banners in their signatures.

Hereby we want to express our gratitude for this once more.

The development of the last few weeks before the event however overthrew all our wildest dreams. Instead of the aspired 60, be soon had 100 and finally even almost 150 participants. Due to this, a series of rearrangements became necessary, but they all prove to be easily done.

Even the job related loss of one of our main speakers could be compensated without loss in quality, since we managed to win one of the leading Brazilian Ichthyologists, Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel, to speak at the convention and grant us a glimpse of her works.

Also, our uncountable number of contacts and friends within our hobby were extremely helpful, as through their help we also manage to acquire some more sponsors. We want to also thank them once more.

Even though we had to fix a few problems related to organization during the first day of the convention (hereby, we also would like to thank the many participants spontaneously helping in their solution), we directly delved in medias res.

Hans Evers gave a very humorous and interesting talk about the future on loricariid catfishes. The topic was not exactly meant for him giving a definitive answer but his many allusions for sure pointed into the direction that only we ourselves can influence the future of loricariids . This would be mainly by preserving the species we have available for our hobby. Which favorably serves as transition to the second presentation.

We (Andreas Tanke and Ingo Seidel) introduced the work of the AG L-Welse (“Workgroup L-Numbers”). More information on that can be found on the webpage of the AG L-Welse. Right after that Julian „Jools“ Dignall continued and presented possibilities how the AG L-Welse and his internet project planetcatfish.com could work together.

Around 10 p.m. we gradually crossed over to the leisure part of the evening and the participants gathered in smaller and larger groups and discussed, in part beyond 4 a.m. It was interesting to see how flexible the participants were and how fast they managed to adapt to the presence of foreign guests, continuing an ongoing discussion in English.

After a short night, the next morning began at 9 a.m. with a talk by one of the “inventors” of the L-Numbers, Rainer Stawikowski. He reported on how the idea was initially formed and showed a broad overview of the diversity of loricariid catfishes.

Following this, Julian Dignall took us on a trip to Peru and Venezuela, where he managed to collect some very interesting loricariids.

Right after that Ingo Seidel introduced the latest L-Numbers he caught during trips to the northern part of Brazil.

Strengthened after lunch, Matthias Kählig (Panta Rhei GmbH) continued. He showed impressive underwater pictures from the Amazon. These pictures stem from trips he undertook together with Oliver Lucanus. He gave a little preview of the fantastic underwater pictures he gathered with Oliver Lucanus for their book “The Amazon Below Water”.

It went on with equally impressive biotopes: Håvard Støre Andresen taught us how to do Aquascaping for Ancistrini. It is incredible to see what one can achieve if one is willing to invest the time.

After a short coffee break Ingo Seidel gave a second talk, where he introduced a collection of loricariid catfishes in more detail. We just mention the beautiful youngsters of Pseudacanthicus sp. L65 once more.

To close the second day we had the privilege to enjoy a very interesting talk by Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel about some connections between L-Numbers and valid species.

After that we again engaged in the relaxed part. Once more, there was a lot of discussion around and this evening, a larger count of participants were equipped with endurance, before the call for the last round was issued around 3 a.m.

The Sunday started with a second talk by Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel, where among others she talked about some expeditions of the INPA and IBAMA to Rio Xingú. She also introduced a number of interesting species.

After a short pause the convention continued with the long anticipated breeder talks.

It began with a presentation on breeding some Panaqolus species by Andreas Tanke, which focused on L 306, L 398 and Panaqolus sp. “Curuá-Una”.

Subsequently Elko Kinlechner talked about successes with Ancistomus sp. L 208 and Wolfgang Heinrichs about the breeding of Peckoltia sp. L 218 before we set out for Lunch.

When all the Hungry were fed – there was Pasta with a selection of different sauces and as a special Advent surprise Vanilla icecream with hot cherries – the last three breeder talks followed which prove that the Swiss did not only invent Ricola but also can breed fish. For starters Hannes Leuenberger gave an interesting contribution on the first breeding of Baryancistrus sp. L 177, followed by Udo Wanninger who – in his familiar speed – reported on his experiences with Oligancistrus sp. L 354”. Being the last Swiss breeder talk, Ulrich Waelti concluded with his talk on the breeding of Leporacanthicus sp. L 241.

Finally Roland Kipper reported on the probably largest danger related to keeping and breeding of Hypancistrus, hybridization. We had to learn that members of this genus are apparently not even halted by extreme differences in size, as even hybridizations of fish measuring 6 and 12 cm, respectively, are known.

Being slightly behind schedule, the last participants left for home around 4 p.m.

As a conclusion of this convention, it is probably most instructive to stick to a quote by a lot of the participants: “ Too bad that it is a whole two years till the next one! ”

Following this spirit, we would like to finally thank all participants, sponsors and helpers once more.

On behalf of the organizational team

Andreas Tanke

P.S.: If anyone is interested in obtaining a T-Shirt of the 1. International L-Numbers Days, we still have a number of additional Shirts sized 2XL. Please just drop us a note (andreas.tanke@l-wels-tage.de) or by phone +49 50 32 94 92 4-0.

And finally we conclude with some pictures that were sent in by the participants.